Re: 90 200TQW Clutch MC Questions

[Igor Kessel <four_rings@worldnet.att.net>]

David Ritter wrote:
> 
> After running into a delay getting my wagon into a shop for the broken
> pedal thing, I've decided to attack this thing myself.

I think the following excerpts from my two old posts (circa '97) to the
list will answer all your questions as well as might prove useful to the
new listers since the archives are down.
I broke two clutch pedals within a year. It was a sticky MC. 
Replace it with a new one, don't waste time rebuilding. BTDT.

Here's a repost from my personal archive:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was in the toll booth' concrete corridor, money in the left hand,
shifter 
in the right, clutch in, when suddenly it went: *BANG* and the Q 
leaped forward. Naturally, I stabbed the brakes and killed the engine,
but...
to have it happen in the bottleneck of a tollbooth, in a rush hour, with
a 
line of cars going nuts coz they were trapped in the same concrete 
corridor behind me. The clutch pedal was laying on the floor and it was 
obvious that the hinge which secures the pedal to the clutch MC had 
snapped off.
Fortunately there are very few things that would force me to call a tow
truck 
and a *no-clutch* condition is not one of them. Took me a bit longer to
reach 
home though since I decided not to go above the 2nd gear. Since RPMs
were 
pretty high I turned the heater all the way up (32°C and on "Hi") and
opened 
windows and sunroof in order not to fry myself.

One more thing. I did rebuild the MC about 2 years ago and yes, it was 
slightly pitted. OTOH I have rebuilt dozens of clutch and brake MCs in
the past without a single problem. The clutch MC that I rebuilt on my 
'85 5000s 4 years ago shows no signs of weakness up to this day.
Then again, that car had a steel clutch pedal so who really knows?...
Yet one more thing: on my 200 the clutch pedal always made a cracking/
snapping noise when pushed in as if a walnut shell was placed under 
it. I just learned to live with this sound.

What happens is old fluid, that had never been replaced, pulls in a lot 
of water from atmosphere (it's highly hydroscopic). The MC inner
cylinder 
walls become pitted. This starts to wear the tender inner rubber seal
lips. 
The rubber flakes escalating the process since now the seals are gliding 
inside the bore with the rubber particles between the wall and
themselves.

Meanwhile the inner wall of the rubber pressure hose is flaking also. 
All of this $h*t precipitates in the bottom portion of the MC and in the 
whole volume of the Slave Cyl. You_will_not_believe the mud inside your
Slave, 
if you were to open yours now (if it's still the original one)!

The last time I did it on my '89 200TQ, it cost me:

MC-$75
Pressure hose - $51
Feed hose, MC to reservoir - $10/1m
Slave Cyl - $59
1L of Pentosin DOT4 brake fluid - $9
--
total=$204, 
hardly an expence for the next 7 years of trouble-free clutch hydraulics
(provided you bleed the clutch/brakes once a year. The first owner of 
the car had never done that - hence the disastrous state of hydraulics 
that I inherited).

The whole job takes hardly an hour.
-----------------------------------
I installed the MC from an '92 100. It was Fe (mine was Al) and had a
different feed spout but fit perfectly well. The p/n was goofy too
something like 4A0...... something, not the familiar 443/441.... type-44
nomenclature.
-----------------------------------
BTW, because of the sticky clutch MC I had to replace the broken clutch 
pedal twice(!), $80x2. And the only reason why I did not waste money on 
a tow truck both times was my ability to shift by ear. If it happened 
to my wife she would've gotten stranded.

All '87-> forward type-44 Audis have these ridiculous alloy clutch
pedals. 
A Stupidity with the capital *S*.
------------------------------------

-- 
Igor Kessel
Two turbo quattros.